San Francisco – In a surprising move, Sony (NYSE: SNE) has dropped its
lawsuit against George ("GeoHot") Hotz, who the company accused of
distributing code that can hack its PlayStation 3 game console, Wired reports.
In return, Hotz has agreed to refrain from any future hacking of the
PlayStation 3 or other Sony products, or else face a $10,000 fine per
violation, according to court records.
Sony had accused Hotz of violating the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits circumventing the
security on a digital device.
The company had also successfully filed subpoenas
for details of Hotz’s Twitter, PayPal and YouTube accounts in connection with
the investigation.
Last week, the online hacker group Anonymous began targeting
Sony websites in connection with the company’s prosecution of Hotz.
Sony
general counsel Riley Russell told Wired the company pursued Hotz "to
protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement
and the permanent injunction achieve this goal."
Related Links:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/sony-settles-ps3-lawsuit/
http://tinyurl.com/429gz8p
(DMW previous coverage)
